Austin Makes Sudden Decision To Run For Gop National Chairman

WASHINGTON — Jeanie Austin, grande dame of the Florida Republican Party, announced Thursday she has entered the race to succeed Haley Barbour as the GOP's national chairman.

Austin, who lives in Orlando and turns 63 Saturday, is seeking to return to the national spotlight two years after stepping down as national co-chairman of the Republican National Committee.

She served in the party's number two slot for three two-year terms beginning in 1989. Austin was chairman of the Florida Republican Party from 1984 to 1989.

The 165-member RNC will convene in January in Washington, D.C., to select its new party chief. Austin said her decision to run was fairly sudden. As recently as last week she eagerly handicapped the wide-open chairmanship race in an interview without a hint that she might run.

''I would have told you no last week,'' Austin said Thursday, adding that she began considering her run later in the week at the urging of various friends.

''I slept on it two or three or four days,'' she said. ''Then I slept on it again last night and finally got up this morning and said, 'I'm gonna go do it.' ''

The RNC comprises the chairman, state committeeman and state committeewoman from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories. Anyone, including non-RNC members like Austin, can run for chairman but must be nominated by two committee members from at least three different states.

Austin said she already was hitting the phones, working on a letter to all the committee members and making fund-raising plans.

''You have to call every one of them, send them a letter and go see them if they're new (on the committee),'' she said. She estimated her last campaign to be co-chairman cost $40,000 to $50,000.

Such elections are competitive only when the party does not have a sitting president to pick the top party boss. Austin was anointed national co-chairman by then-President Bush for her first two terms and ran successfully on her own to win her third term in 1993.

Other contenders to succeed Barbour are state party chairmen or committeemen such as James Nicholson of Colorado, David Norcross of New Jersey and James Rappaport of Massachusetts.

Florida GOP chairman Tom Slade, considered a possible candidate, announced last week that he wouldn't run. Betsy DeVos, the Michigan party chairman and daughter-in-law of Orlando Magic owner Richard DeVos, took herself out of contention this week.